Werner

They installed a new terminology to indicate new research methods and gave rise to a striking, one can say wonderful development of science. These scholars have dominated the ideas and facts of their time, their authority was recognized, at least until such time as their forces did not experience tend to decline. However, neither the one nor the other have not been gifted with the ability of deep penetration into the causes of the phenomena and the brilliant flight of thought that goes beyond immediate experience, ideas ahead of his contemporaries, anticipates and predicts not yet clear to them the truth. Once you have created so far been absent from the classification of minerals, Werner much contributed to the development of this science, and then he sent his forces to petrography (the study of rocks) and gave a definite meaning, used until quite arbitrarily, such as: granite, syenite, gneiss, basalt ; therefore became possible to study and compare the different localities. Werner drew attention to the layered rocks and made many observations on the nature of their occurrence. He pointed to the importance of the fall and stretch fibers and began to distinguish between concordant and discordant bedding. All this was certainly news: many of these studies were performed before, but far Werner moved them forward and put into general use. Along with this he took borrowed from Fyukselya division of rocks, the time of their deposition in large groups, or so-called "formation", and as for his ideas about the sequence of strata, in this respect, it is a little ahead of its predecessors and Lehmann Fyukselya . All these great achievements Werner and give him the right to be called the father of geology. In the history of a new branch of science that has made the observation to its heritage, deserves attention is the fact that in creating the prevailing system did not play a big role on a journey, expanding horizons, this system owes its origin to a deep study of one small area, Saxon Ore Mountains. Not as accurate Werner was in their theoretical findings. According to him, under all of the new entities are the so-called "wilderness" of the breed, what are granite, gneiss, mica and clay slate, porphyry, etc., and above them are "layered" rock, and even worse - "drifts." All of these breeds, except for wilderness, stood out from the water and formed a series of horizontal or only slightly inclined strata; strong inclination Werner sees as an exception due to local variations. In his view, general, and any significant violations of the correctness of stratification are not possible; volcanic activity relates only to the last time, is a local phenomenon, and in ancient times in the life of the earth did not exist. Therefore, the later igneous rocks of the tertiary system, primarily basalt, Werner believed sedimentary rocks: basalt, is the newest of the layered rocks, was originally a general cover all continents and gradually the influence of destructive processes, it was destroyed, and now we are in different countries only a few " dome "of this breed. Finally, the sequence required to accept that at different periods of the life of the earth, by some unexplained process, the water in the seas rose and fell and the mountains owe their origin razmyvayuschey of water. These are broadly the views of Werner; characterize his teaching can only be approximate since exact data not available. With the success moving forward on the basis of professorship, he had no disposition to hard literary work, so printed, some articles, they give no idea of ??his views. In our judgments about the teachings of Werner, we can be guided only published after the notes of one of his students, but contemporaries pointed out that the use of this source be with great caution. There is no doubt that in the theoretical views Werner contains large errors. In subsequent years, when the geology in many ways, fell into the other extreme, these slips were placed in a Werner guilt, and some shortsighted people saw in his teachings brake for further development of science: it was cruel and unfair. Of course, some persistence of Werner and his followers, especially the blind in the matter of the basalt gave rise to endless disputes, which spend much effort to no avail, but this does not detract from the merits of Werner: he laid the foundation of scientific geology and raised it to such a height, which until He could not even dream of. Along with Werner, and partly in the past, made a number of prominent people who, having to some extent the method of the great geologist, has managed to avoid his mistakes, and pointed to facts that do not support the views of Werner. Among these researchers, first of all, we should mention Sos-Surah, the first alpine geologist with a new direction. Watching in the vicinity of Mont Blanc alternation of beds of conglomerates with limestone and shale, and drawing attention to their upright position, the scientist concluded that there is a vast amount of flexion and there were tears the earth's crust phenomena are observed in other areas of the Alps, did not meet the views of Werner a quiet development.